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University of Michigan 'cautiously optimistic' about solving housing shortage for incoming freshmen

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Returning University of Michigan students with housing contracts were asked to relocate to off-campus apartments to make room for a larger-than-expected freshman class.
(Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News.)

University of Michigan officials said they've gotten "a very positive response" from returning students who were asked to give up their on-campus dorms in exchange for equally priced off-campus apartments.

In late June, University Housing sent an email to all of the returning students who had housing contracts, asking them to accept a close-proximity living space off campus because of the unexpectedly high number of freshmen students who accepted offers to attend the university.

A record number of freshman applicants – nearly 50,000 – led to about 600 more students accepting offers than originally anticipated by Michigan. As a result, nearly 450 freshmen were left without housing assignments.

"We sent out an email to the eligible students and invited them to get in touch with us by phone or email to ask any questions, and if they are interested in this opportunity there's an online process whereby they can apply to have their housing contract reassigned," said Peter Logan, communications director for University Housing.

The voluntary reassignment would place students in The Courtyards, The Varsity and University Towers apartment buildings, all located near campus. Housing contracts would stay the same, and the university would subsidize the difference in rent, which is expected to be about $2 million.

Those students choosing to relocate also have the choice to keep their residence hall meal plans, modify the plan or drop the plan completely.

So far, about 345 students have said they would move into the off-campus apartments, Logan said, and 315 of those students have gotten their new housing assignments for the 2014-15 school year.

"It's taken a lot of pressure off the spaces that we needed to provide for incoming freshmen. Right now there are nearly 450 freshmen who don't have on-campus housing assignments, but we're confident that we'll be able to get all of them assigned," Logan said.

"The moment we made this offer to returning students, we made it clear that this was optional...and the response we got was pretty positive. I think we thought through the offer so thoroughly that we really didn't get any indignation from any students or parents."

Logan said that if more returning students aren't willing to take the offer and move off campus, the university does have a backup plan.

"We will convert lounges in the dorms that are suitable for those kinds of conversions over to student house. Those are scattered throughout the various residences halls and we have enough so that we can accommodate about 90 students. Ideally those spaces are used for community use, but they will be converted to community rooms," he said.

"These rooms are probably the size or a little larger than a normal dorm room, and would accommodate three to four students. It's simply putting in three to four beds, three to four dressers, three to four chairs and then making sure it has a security lock on it that the students can access."

Officials don't expect this to be an issue in the future, as West Quad's reopening will add about 1,000 more beds. That dorm is being renovated and will not be available to students during the upcoming school year.

"We are taking these steps because we believe first-year students who apply for housing should live on campus, to help them with the transition to university life," University Housing director Linda Newman said in a statement.

Logan said that freshmen are not required to live on campus, but approximately 98 percent of them choose to do so, so it's important to be able to accommodate that request.

He added that some parents and incoming freshmen have expressed concerned about potentially not being housed, since more than 400 don't have assignments yet.

"We've still not completed all of our assignments, but we will be able to accommodate all those incoming freshmen," Logan said.

"It did arouse concern of incoming freshmen and their parents about whether we'd have room. At this point, we're cautiously optimistic that this will all work out very well and that we won't have to go to other measures to house incoming freshmen."